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Tory Verdi: EMU women’s basketball head coach?

Rumor — by which I mean reports in the Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, and elsewhere — has it that Kansas assistant women’s basketball coach Tory Verdi will be named the new women’s basketball head coach at EMU (the first man to hold that position) this Thursday or Friday. Hopefully you remember how badly the rumors missed the mark with the men’s basketball coaching search last year, but we’ll assume for tonight that they’re right.

Let’s get to know Tory Verdi.

A native of New Britain, Connecticut, Verdi earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Keene State College in 1996 and a master’s degree in computer technology from the University of Hartford in 2003.

Verdi was an assistant men’s basketball coach at Keene State (NCAA Division III) in 1995-96 (yes, while he was an undergraduate student), then an assistant men’s coach at the University of Hartford (NCAA Division I – America East Conference) in 1996-97.

In 2003 and 2004 he was an assistant coach with the Connecticut Sun (WNBA), and in the WNBA off-season he was the head coach of the Springfield Spirit in the National Women’s Professional Basketball League. In 2004-05 he was the head assistant coach at Columbia University, where he served as acting head coach for the last few months of the season. The next summer he was a special assistant for the Sun, before becoming an assistant coach at Nebraska, where he spent the next five years. For the last two seasons, Verdi was an assistant coach at Kansas.

At both Big XII schools, Verdi specialized in coaching the post players. At Nebraska he worked with All-Big XII players Danielle Page (eventually a WNBA player), Cory Montgomery, and first-team All-American Kelsey Griffin.

The only thing that seems to be missing from Verdi’s resume is a local connection.

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Dear cmadler,
I have a few concerns, but nothing major. I’ve always felt that the women’s team should always have a female head coach. Being able to feel free to enter the locker room at any time, understanding how a woman may react to certain situations, etc.
He has little connection to the mid-west, and that may prove to be okay. Since he is a male , will that mean he will have to hire female assistants? (addressing locker room situations) I’m hoping that he turns out to be a very good coach for the woman’s team. We will get a better idea of his thinking when he is introduced at the press conference.